


A Visit

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [32]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Baby Harry, First Kiss, First War with Voldemort, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 23:54:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13177917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sirius visits James at the cottage where he's been forced to hide for the last year.





	A Visit

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “Hi! Could you please write a fic about Lily's letter to Sirius in which she says "James is getting a bit frustrated...If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much.” Maybe an AU in which James and Lily are in hiding together but not married. I'd like to see James missing Sirius and/or Sirius going to visit him, please? Some hurt/comfort? Thank you so much! :)”
> 
> Originally posted on [tumblr](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com/post/169018339255/hi-could-you-please-write-a-fic-about-lilys)

James sidled up to the window and rested his head against the glass. Harry was in bed, but he was close enough to hear if the sprog woke-- not that it would be necessary. He was sleeping through the night most of the time, and even though most of the time wasn’t all the time, after the excitement of today, he was certainly out for the night.

It had felt almost normal, for a little bit, watching Harry zoom around on his new toy broomstick. He’d broken a vase from Lily’s awful sister and nearly killed Crookshanks, Lily’s cat. Normal. Except that Sirius should have been there, and- he stopped himself from continuing that train of thought. The rain made the streetlamp glow look ethereal.

“James?” Lily said softly.

“Hm?”

“It’s getting late.”

“Harry just went down,” he replied.

“That was two hours ago.”

“Oh.” His body felt a little stiff from staying in one position for so long, but otherwise he had been comfortable. Comfortable enough to not even realise that hours had passed. James turned to look at her, sad to find that she looked concerned. “I’m fine, Lils.”

“I’m sorry Sirius couldn’t be here,” she said, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

James closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s fine. He’s busy with the Order.” He stood up and stretched. “Goodnight Lily. Sleep well.”

* * *

Lily was sat at her desk and pulled out a sheaf of parchment and a pen.

 _Dear Padfoot,_ she started. She told him about Harry and smiled at the picture she’d chosen to send. Harry was the cutest, especially to Sirius. Her smile faded as she remembered why she had to write a letter instead of Sirius getting to be there and witness it. She tried to keep the tone of the letter upbeat, but couldn’t resist asking him to visit.

The simple fact of the matter was that James needed to see him, but she couldn’t just beg Sirius to come. If he didn’t have the time, he didn’t have the time, and making him feel guilty about James’s emotional state would accomplish nothing.

_Lots of love, Lily_

She addressed the envelope and put the letter and photograph inside before sealing it. She would send it in the morning, before she left her room so James didn’t see.

James was a close friend and she loved him, but he didn’t like writing letters like this. He never said why, but she thought it was because if he wrote, then he would feel like he wouldn’t see them for a while.

The reality was that whether he wrote or not, he wouldn’t see Sirius very often. She understood where he was coming from all the same.

* * *

Sirius didn’t write back, but a few days later he dropped by for a visit. Lily smiled and hugged him, then checked the room to see if James had come in yet. “I’ll grab Harry and go upstairs. You can see him after you and James talk, okay? It’s just-” she checked the room again “-he misses you, and it’s getting to him more than he wants to admit.”

“Thanks Lils.” He gave her another hug, then went over to where Harry was amusing himself with lego. “Hey prongslet.”

Harry looked up and squealed with delight. “Pa’foo’!”

Sirius grinned and caught him when he launched himself forward. Sirius peppered his head with kisses, not bothered when Harry grabbed a tiny fistful of hair that was swinging in front of him. “You alright there Haz? Behaving for your mum like a good sprog?”

“Course he is,” James said.

Sirius looked up and smiled widely when he saw him. Lily was right, he was trying his best to pretend he was fine, but the truth was obvious. Sirius grabbed Harry when he stood rather than try and get Harry’s hand to relinquish his hold on Sirius’s hair.

James pulled him into a hug, clinging to him desperately. Sirius tried to suppress a flinch when one of his hands made contact the wound on his torso, but from the way James stilled, he wasn’t entirely successful.

“Sorry I missed Harry’s birthday, mate.”

James shook his head. “You were busy, I can’t expect you to drop everything for a one year old’s party. Besides, Harry didn’t even know what was going on.”

“Yeah, Lily told me. Still, I’m sorry I couldn’t be here.”

James sent Lily a hesitant look, wondering what else she told Sirius.

“Here,” Lily said while loosening Harry’s grip on Sirius’s hair and gently taking him, “I’ll take Harry upstairs so you can catch up. Nice to see you Sirius.” She brushed a kiss over his cheek before she left, sending him a pointed look because James was looking at him and not her.

James waited until she was gone and they heard the door upstairs close. “You’re hurt.” His hands started pulling up Sirius’s shirt, but he pushed them back down.

“It’s nothing.”

“It bloody well is _not_ ,” he said, trying again and batting away Sirius’s interfering hands. He hissed through his teeth as he saw the irritated gash across Sirius’s ribs.

“The healer said it’ll be gone in a week if I don’t bugger with it.”

“It’ll scar,” James said, ghosting his fingers across the edges-- far enough away that it wouldn’t come close to hurting him.

“What’s one more?” Sirius said, a crooked smile on his lips.

James’s hand was resting on Sirius’s hip, the other still holding up his shirt, his eyes fixed on the wound, red and swollen. “I should’ve been there.”

Sirius wrapped a hand around James’s in front of him. “No, you shouldn’t have. You should have been here, with Harry, safe like you were.”

James looked at him, expression mutinous. “Are you going to keep saying that till you die? Cause that’s what’s going to happen,” he said, dropping his hands but not stepping back. “You’re going to die because I’m not there to watch your back, and it’s not going to mean bollocks that I was safe and sound locked in here because you’ll be _dead_.”

“I’m not going to die--” James snorted “--hey, listen to me.” He grabbed James’s face in his hands. “I’m not. They got in a lucky shot this time, that’s all.”

“Right. And how many more lucky shots do they have?” Sirius blinked, taken aback. “How many more lucky dodges do you have? This is- this is _bullshit_ ; I should be out there with you! We’re supposed to be together, we’re supposed to have each others’ backs and I can’t do that from here.”

“I want you there too,” Sirius admitted quietly, his hands still framing James’s face. He gave him a sad smile. “I miss you. I’d feel a hell of a lot safer out there if we were together.”

James leaned forward, the few centimeters between them gone in an instant, and lightly pressed his lips to Sirius’s. He didn’t pull back, not really. It was just enough to wait, to see if Sirius was going to pull back-- he didn’t. James kissed him again, their mouths slotting together. A noise was pulled from him when Sirius used his hold on James’s hair to kiss him harder. He felt Sirius’s lips twitch for a smile at that, and he slid his hands to Sirius’s lower back in revenge, teasing the dip and rise that divided his back from his arse.

“James,” he whispered reverently.

“Don’t go,” James begged. “Stay with me.”

Sirius licked James’s bottom lip, sucked it into his mouth and dragged his teeth across it like he wanted to make James desperate but they both knew he already was. “I can’t.”

“Just for tonight. The Fidelius will let you stay a night, please.”

“It would,” Sirius allowed, but it didn’t sound like he was agreeing. “Could you really let me leave in the morning, though?”

James’s hands tightened reflexively. “No,” he admitted, and it felt like gravel in his throat. “But watching you leave tomorrow is better than watching you leave now.” He felt that Sirius was about to disagree again, so he said, “I kissed you. And you kissed me back. Are you really going to leave? We should talk about what we are to each other.”

Nothing major changed in Sirius’s posture, but James could feel that he won, that Sirius was going to stay with him. “We’re the same thing to each other that we’ve always been, James.” He quirked a smile. “Just about everything.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog @[imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr. Feel free to send in a prompt of your own!


End file.
